2023 Diablo Day 29 - Wednesday Morning Junction. Turnout Pledge Ride #3

The Mount Diablo Cyclists are fund raising for more bike turnouts!. I have pledged to donate $5 for every time I ride Diablo until the end of September; won't you join me?  Here's the link - tell them Diablo Scott sent you.  

LINK->  Bike Turnouts

Got to the Tire Poppers a little early to wait for Charlie. While I was there I encountered Diablo Legend Cathy and her sister Patti. They were turning around to do another repeat.

Charlie said he was not anticipating a fast ride today, but then after a mile or so he threw down. I clawed my way back to him and even got a lead for a while, but then I faded short of the finish line. I was listening to Sanjay Gupta's podcast earlier this morning with an exercise physiologist who said that endurance training is next to worthless for older folks and what we really need to do is high intensity intervals - so I did a couple of those and it was hard but fun.

The bugs were pretty bad at Junction - big biting horseflies, and gnats. They seemed to bother Charlie more than me, maybe because I smelled like Icy Hot... that made me laugh - the thought that a bug expecting a tasty blood meal would not be happy with a mouthful of sinus-burning wintergreen liniment.

There were lots of riders at Junction too - I think they were Valley Spokesmen on a club ride.

I see this rider a lot on Diablo - twice today... she was doing repeats. 

Strava says her name is Linda - give her some kudos.  

Cathy and Patti

I thought this guy was trying to photograph me, but later realized he was flying a drone.

Future Queen of the Mountain right here.

2023 Diablo Day 28 - Saturday Morning Junction. Turnout Pledge Ride #2

The Mount Diablo Cyclists are fund raising for more bike turnouts!. I have pledged to donate $5 for every time I ride Diablo from today until the end of September; won't you join me?  Here's the link - tell them Diablo Scott sent you.    Bike Turnouts

It was kind of chilly during my morning recon/dog walk, so I checked my weather app and it wasn't showing much for warming in the next few hours. I decided to wear a light jacket. But I couldn't remember where I put my windbreaker... until I found some old boxes in the guest bathroom. They were full of personal items and top secret submarine documents about Polaris missiles and contingency plans in case of nuclear war with Ireland. I was worried I maybe shouldn't have those docs - until I found a free Android app for declassifying documents just by taking a photo of them... it's called "SnapDeClass"*. 

*I will get a small referral fee if you download the app using that link.

Wildlife Encounter:  some young deer crossing the road near the hole in the wall.

At the Tire Poppers I took off my windbreaker and stuffed it in my jersey pocket. It was nice the rest of the way up. Put it back on for the way down.

Time to trim the bushes out of the bike lane.

DEER !

This guy passed me like I was riding a Huffy with flat tires...
he must've been an ex-pro or something.

I posed like an ex-pro so this guy wouldn't feel embarrassed
thinking he was being passed by a codger with a wonky knee.

2023 Diablo Day 27 - Saturday Morning Junction Turnout Pledge Ride #1

Before I get started - check this out. The Mount Diablo Cyclists are raising money for more bicycle turnouts on The Mountain.

Bike Turnouts

This involves a bequeathment from the legendary Joe Shami, donations from several sponsors, matching funds, and YOUR pledges. There are 45 turnouts already on The Mountain and we all know how much safer riding has been since then, and now we'd like to put in *another* 30-45 turnouts. So this website explains more details and accepts your gifts and *all* money goes to turnouts and turnouts only - no ranger raises or political candidates. And the Mount Diablo Cyclists organization will decide where to put them, starting with where they're needed the most. There's a time limit though... the campaign ends in October and they'll build as many turnouts as they have the money for.

I have pledged to donate $5 for every time I ride Diablo from today until the end of September; won't you join me?  Here's that link again - tell them Diablo Scott sent you.    Bike Turnouts

Today's ride was very nice - nice weather, nice people, I felt nice, and did a nice effort; I even made EVERY green light on the way to the Tire Poppers. At Junction, there was Colonel Al who was promoting the afore-mentioned bike turnout project.

I don't try to keep track of the "passed'em-passedme" ratio on rides any more... pretty much everybody passes me. But today I had passed TWO people on the way up and was feeling proud of myself when I saw two more guys at the last switchback before Junction so I lit up the afterburners and tried to boost my score up to FOUR, but one of the guys was on to me and he outsprinted both me and his buddy, so my score for today was THREE. Bonus - the sprinter guy had a 7-Eleven Eddy Merckx.

Not me! Not my bike!

2023 Diablo Day 26 - Wednesday Afternoon Junction

Nice and warm today. Me and Charlie got to the Tire Poppers at about the same time. Neither of us were feeling speedy. We talked about politics, Boy Scouts, titanium, and flat tires (prescient!).

At Junction we saw a guy take down the cones and drive down NGR. We figured he was a construction worker, but it seemed kind of weird.

On the way home my rear tire went soft. I was getting those squirmy feelings a few miles earlier but ignored/denied them until I couldn't any more.  That was the nice latex tube too - didn't find a puncture or anything in the tire, so I'm not sure what the dealio was. Gotta remember to re-pack the saddle pouch before Saturday.

#TheLastFlatIgot

LINDA!

Charlie tells the car behind us not to pass just yet.

2023 Diablo Day 25 - Saturday Morning Junction

Started a little late, hoping it would warm up. It did, but not much.

A little windy and chilly but the air tastes good. Best wishes for my New England blog readers.

No roadkill, no wildlife, no stupid drivers, no new PBs on Strava. It was pleasant and unremarkable today.

At Junction I talked to a guy who had ridden from San Ramon, but he didn't know that NGR was closed and his original plan was to go down and make a loop. I could've helped him with some ideas but he seemed like he could figure it out himself.

Boy my knee felt good though - didn't hurt at all, but the stability was tenuous so I could push it but carefully.